RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann appeared Tuesday in court, where prosecutors said they've given more than 2,500 pages of documents to the defense.
The families of the victims did not make a statement ahead of the 59-year-old's appearance in Suffolk County Court.
Heuermann, who was brought to court through an underground tunnel from the jail across the street, repeatedly looked at the spectator section during the appearance. It's unclear who he may have been looking for.
The prosecutor said they've handed over at least 8 terabytes of material, including autopsy results of the victims, photos of the victims and an inventory of all the items that were taken from Heuermann's house in Massapequa Park. They've also given about 100 hours of surveillance video recorded outside his home and office.
More evidence will be turned over on a rolling basis, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said, noting there's "13 years of investigation."
Heuermann did not speak during the 2 p.m. hearing, which began about a half-hour late as prosecutors met his lawyer and the judge, Timothy Mazzei, behind closed doors. Tierney said afterward that they had been discussing the logistics and timetable for turning over evidence.
Prosecutors and Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, also reached a confidentiality agreement that prohibits sharing copies of the evidence with the public. Some of the evidence includes sensitive photographs of the women’s remains as they were found, wrapped in burlap and buried in thick underbrush.
Brown said Heuermann denied committing the crimes.
“The press has convicted my client without seeing a shred of evidence,” Brown told reporters after the hearing, suggesting that prosecutors "very well could have the wrong guy.”
Brown said he received the first wave of evidence before Tuesday’s hearing — five manila envelopes, each containing a 2 terabyte hard drive — and that he has yet to review any evidence collected in the investigation.
“Today was the first time I was handed any evidence in this case and it was in the form of terabytes," Brown said. "I can’t read terabytes with my hands or my eyes.”
No new charges were filed and no bail was discussed during the roughly 15-minute court appearance.
Heuermann is due back in court on Sept. 27.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty last month to the murders of three women—Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman—whose remains were found in 2010 along a stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. He is also the prime suspect in the killing of a fourth woman found in the area.
The longtime architectural consultant was remanded to the Suffolk County Sheriff's maximum security jail in Riverhead ever since his July 13 arrest outside his Fifth Avenue offices in Midtown Manhattan.
His attorney has previously pointed to Heuermann's lack of a criminal record and said, "There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents."
Meanwhile, a New Jersey prosecutor said Tuesday that the murders of several sex workers on Long Island do not appear to be related to the unsolved 2006 killings of four sex workers near Atlantic City.
According to Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds, detectives from his office recently met with Suffolk County detectives and compared information on the two sets of homicides.
“There does not seem to be a connection between the suspect in the Gilgo Beach case and the Atlantic County homicides from 2006,” Reynolds said.
Officers compared timelines, dates, as well as methodologies of both cases.
“There does not seem to be a connection between the suspect in the Gilgo Beach case and the Atlantic County homicides from 2006,” Reynolds said.
Meanwhile, Heuermann's estranged wife and two adult children are back at their Massapequa Park home after police completed their 12-day search last week.
While the family has tried to stay away from the media, his wife Asa Ellerup, 59, broke her silence to several outlets on Monday, telling the New York Post that her family has been understandably traumatized by both Heuermann's arrest and the wall-to-wall search of their home.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” Ellerup said. “Anxiety.”
Photos taken by Ellerup from inside the home—which was previously described by authorities as "very cluttered"—show the residence was totally upended in the search, with boxes and belongings piled high and a large hole cut into the bathtub.
"I had three cats. Litter boxes were a strew, thrown on top of everything. My pictures were thrown all over the place," Ellerup said. "My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there’s any parts to the couch."
She said her 26-year-old daughter and 33-year-old son "cry themselves to sleep."
Her son, who has developmental disabilities, is "distraught and doesn’t understand," while her daughter has expressed feeling "not human" from the trauma, she said.
Ellerup's attorney Bob Macedonio clarified, saying, "She meant what they’ve done to them and the family is not even human. They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals."
Ellerup indicated the family will stay at the home for now and said she's grateful "we're together."
"That’s really what matters right now," she said she told her son. "That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this."
Ellerup, who filed for divorce days after her husband was arrested, told ABC News that "everything is destroyed" and all the belongings packed inside the one-story home are a painful reminder of the crimes allegedly committed by her husband of 27 years.
"Every time my kids go through something... they open a box. Every single time they cry," she said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said a "massive amount of material" was removed from the home and it will take time to examine. He said nothing in particular "jumped out" at investigators but "we're going to wait until we see all the evidence."
"There is a whole entire trace analysis that we have to go through with the house with regard to hair fibers, DNA, blood, which we'll just have to wait for the results on," he said.
Meanwhile, police have been keeping a close watch on the family's home on First Avenue to keep members of the public from stopping to gawk at the house and creating a "sideshow."
Officials have said they'll continue to investigate if any other murders on Long Island may be connected to Heuermann. In addition to the "Gilgo Four" whose remains were found within a quarter mile of each other, the remains of a half-dozen other people were also found in the area in 2011.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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